


Stick To The Cause

by cheap-perfume-and-gasoline (burning_books)



Category: Leverage
Genre: Character Study, Season 3 Spoilers, i wrote this and it made me very sad, someone give this man a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28800606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burning_books/pseuds/cheap-perfume-and-gasoline
Summary: Just a one-off character study of Eliot's loyalty.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Stick To The Cause

Eliot Spencer was unquestionably loyal.

He was loyal to his dad right up until he couldn't take it anymore, couldn't take the thought of living the life his father laid out for him. Stay in town and work at the hardware shop, take over when the old man dies. Eliot didn't want that life, couldn't want that life. No matter how hard he tried to find a nice girl and settle down, he just couldn't make his peace with the thought. That hardware store started to feel like a gilded cage. There was a throbbing ache in the deepest depth of him that told him to run. He worked with his dad after school and saved up his pennies and bottled up the ache, but he couldn't sit still forever. 

He joined the military, enlisted at eighteen. He burned the only bridge that lead back home and never even glanced over his shoulder, didn't even really watch the only place he'd known up until then disappear in his rearview mirror. 

And he was loyal in the military, too. Loyal to his country even though it meant losing the woman he thought he was gonna marry one day. He's still not sure what the worst thing he ever did in the name of service was, exactly, come to think of it. But he'd done a lot of terrible things for them, because he was loyal. To his country, to his COs, and most of all to his brothers in arms.

He kept an old beat-up jewelry box with him that held several sets of dog tags. It was one of the only things he ever kept. Eliot was never much for sentimental things, but those dog tags went far beyond that. He wasn't just loyal to his living brothers, but to the dead ones, too, and this was the best way he knew to keep their memories with him.

His loyalty still ran strong after he left the service, too, and got into retrieval. He quit trusting so easily, but his loyalty to his clients made him stand out. That combined with his weapons and combat training made him one of the more highly coveted specialists in his field.

And then Eliot met Damien Moreau. 

He'd rather forget just how loyal he was to Moreau, and for how long. He was too loyal for too long and that's the end of the conversation. He never told anyone exactly what he did, what his loyalty made him do. He spilled a lot of blood. Killed people who didn't deserve it. Did a lot of horrible things he still had nightmares about. 

Working for Moreau was worse than his time in the service, if he was honest with himself, because at least he could rationalize most of the things he did in war zones, when he still had the American flag over his shoulder. He couldn't blame his actions under Moreau on anyone or anything but his own damn loyalty.

And when he finally left Moreau, got back into the retrieval groove, well, the wake of destruction still followed him. He didn't trust anyone anymore, hardly trusted himself. Hadn't touched a gun since his time in the military. But he was still so, so loyal.

And then he got the call from Dubenich, to steal the plans from Pierson. Worked on a team, for the first time in a very long time. And then they went to meet Dubenich in the warehouse, except there was no Dubenich and no money and Hardison had a gun in his face. Then Parker and Nate showed up and Nate put the pieces together, and they ran.

But Hardison tripped. Eliot could easily have left him behind. He'd had a gun in Eliot's face, after all.

But Eliot was loyal. Loyal to his team, loyal to the last. So he grabbed Hardison and pulled him to safety.

That's when he realized he'd finally found a good thing to be loyal to.


End file.
